~Christianity and War: And Other Essays Against the Warfare State~ is
a trenchant collection of thirteen essays by Laurence Vance, which has
one fundamental and reverberating theme-opposition to the warfare
state that robs us of our liberty, substance, and sometimes our lives.
Vance takes issue with mindless evangelicals that twist Scripture and
are persistently in the amen corner of the warfare state. Vance
itinerates the just war theory of Murray Rothbard, and reminds us
that: "A just war exists when a people tries to ward off the
threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an
already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when
a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain
an already existing coercive rule over them." Another prong to be
satisfied in a just-war test would obviously be that the war is
declared with a constitutional Declaration of War.

"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the
earth in defense of our great nation," proclaimed President Bush.
Former Pentagon official and National Review columnist Michael Ledeen
has proclaimed: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs
to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the
wall, just to show we mean business." Sadly, a good little war
has become as American apple-pie, and the modus operandi of our
establishment. The United States doused the flames of the Yugoslav
civil war with gasoline. As biased intermediaries, the West gave the
Albanian KLA the tacit go ahead to invade Kosovo. The KLA has been
longed classified by the CIA as white-slave runners and narco-terrorists.
The Yugoslav war also turned out to be a proving ground for
international mujahideen fighters, our alleged allies at the time,
which now fill the ranks of terrorist Al-Qaeda cells. Rep. Ron Paul
has rightly characterized U.S. foreign policy as
"schizophrenic."

Sadly, many American evangelicals are in the amen corner of the
war-hawk party. Laurence Vance rhetorically asks, "Under what
circumstances, then, is a Christian justified in or excused from
killing another human being? Is it ever all right for a Christian to
be a `killer'? As I see it, there are four circumstances under which a
Christian could justifiably kill or be excused from killing: capital
punishment, self-defense, accidents, and `just' wars." He speaks
from a Christian perspective and not as a mere reactionary pacifist.
"No one, Christian or otherwise, would fault a man for killing
another man in self-defense." However, Vance does not acquiesce
in the rollover and play dead interpretation of Romans 13, which is no
divine right of kings or a Hobbesian mandate for unfettered obedience
to the powers that be. When the State demands that the Christian defy
God's immutable standards of righteousness, and fight an unjust war
and commit bloodshed, it is the Christian's duty to resist. The
Christians of the early church would not worship the image of Caesar.
Yet many Christian evangelicals are blind cheerleaders for the State
and its war. "To justify their consent or silence, and to keep
their congregations in line, Christian leaders repeat to their
parishioners the mantra of `obey the powers that be,' a loose
paraphrase of Romans 13:1, as if that somehow means that they should
blindly follow whatever the president or the government says, and even
worse, that it overturns the commandment `Thou shalt not kill' (Exodus
20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17), which is repeated in the New Testament
(Matthew 19:18; Romans 13:9)." Vance takes issue with Jerry
Falwell and other prominent evangelical leaders that are cheerleaders
for the warfare state. Vance reflects upon the Biblical doctrine of
sin, and sketches a more prudent understanding of war from a Biblical
perspective. As Bob Jones Sr. has opined, "War is God's judgment
on sin here; hell is God's judgment on sin hereafter".

Vance's anthology of essays against the warfare state is
multi-faceted. Vance offers a thoughtful critique of the overblown
American empire and spells out the implications of imperial blowback.
George Santayana has reminded us that "Those who do not remember
their history are doomed to repeat them." Itinerating lessons
from history, Vance echoes the principles of America's founding
generation and their thoughts on the evils of standing armies,
interventionism, militarism and empire. He offers a thoughtful
exposition of the Cato's Letters by Englishmen Gordon and Trenchard,
and their thoughts on war and militarism. Cato's Letters embodied the
Old Whig tradition of liberty and had profoundly influenced America's
founding generation. As Cato's Letters declare, "Standing armies
are standing curses in every country under the sun, where they are
more powerful than the people." Likewise, Vance builds on the
wisdom of the Anti-Federalist pamphleteer Brutus which has been
ascribed to Robert Yates. Brutus speaks on at length on the evils of
standing armies. Brutus observes that "A free republic will never
keep a standing army to execute its laws. It must depend upon the
support of its citizens." Brutus traces the unfortunate history
of Europe where confidence in standing armies as the long-arm of the
high magistrate was ever where the parent of despotism. This wisdom
has not fallen on deaf ears to modern political leaders. The late U.S.
Army General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that, "In
the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of
unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower reluctantly
admitted that a new powerful interest had become entrenched in our
nation, in the aftermath of the massive collectivist mobilization of
economic and human resources to fight the Second World War. It should
go without saying that a powerful interest in the war business may
lead the way for more war.

Christians that have seen the horrors of war have soberly looked upon
it with neither reverence nor affection. Confederate General Thomas J.
Jackson declared, "It is painful enough to discover with what
unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. I have seen enough of it
to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils." Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn has opined, "Violence can only be concealed by a
lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence." The pains
of war leave many of its survivors scarred, disillusioned, and some
are overwhelmed with the burden of guilt. All things considered,
Laurence Vance has pieced together a powerful, yet succinct collection
of essays confronting the ill effects of the warfare state. Moreover,
he tackles the naivety of evangelicals that mindlessly lend their
support to the wars of the state. War represents God's judgment
against sin, and it should be avoided at all costs. The only just war
is a war of self-defense against an aggressor and an invader.

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not
hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?"
-James 4:1